St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-17
Noble Contributions to The World Of Ar
by Painters Of the North
land.
Some of the Great Scandinavian Names
Made Famous in European
Galleries.
Founding Of the First Academy at Stock
hOlm---Art Growth Above the
Baltic.
The Famed Landscapes and Marine
Views Produced by Scandina-
Wan Artists.

pHI VIC ulaloSuc certainly sounded ike
| this:
Scandinavian art What do they
mean by Scandinavian art? | defy you
| to name three Scandinavian artists
known outside of their own country"
Nonsense! Why to begin with.
there's Th0rwaldsen, and, then, let me
| see, ThOrwaldsen, and" the second
voice went off in certain embarrass-
ment, as of fast evapOrating conf
| dence.
| The zeal of the would-be informant
| need not have dropped so suddenly.
scandinavian art has had, it is true, but
| recent development. The standard
! works on the history of art almost
| wholly ignore the countries north of the
Baltic; so that up to the end of the eigh-
teenth century you shall find scarcely
a Scandinavian name to add to that of
| IhorWaldSen. And Th0rwaldsen's own
| ripper fame belongs to the nineteenth
century. Not that the fine arts lacked
| encouragement i'll country which pro-
duced Gustayus Adolphus. The
academy Of Stockholm was founded
as early as 1888, while in Denmark,
over a hundred years before, architect
ure had been pursued with great en-
may be that Scandinavia should
have the credit of much that has been
| attributed to Germany i'll art produc-
ton. 1t has been the fashion, one might
say the passion, with Scandinavian ar
lists to study in Germany, and after
wards to settle there. Their birth place
is apt to be forgotten, and their work
identified with their mere dwelling
place. The foremost landscape painter
OF Norway is known as ''Gude, OF Carls-
ruhe:" while Dusseldorf, Munich and
even Vienna get the reputation which
rightfully belongs to Christiana, or
Stockholm or Copenhagen. But in the
present century the tendency of the
Scandinavian artists towards an identi-
cal field of art and distinction has served
to group them as an independent
school. The last Seventy-fiVe years
has seen an extraordinary growth,
q growth so sudden as to seem not
growth at all, and yet so mature as to
seem the product of ages. / refer. of
course. to the great school of marine
painters. The races on the shores of
the North sea have produced the best
marine art the world has ever seem So
says Mr.. Benjamin. GUIDE, of Carlsruhe.
whose name heads a long procession of
medals and orders atteSting the honor
of his work throughout the continent,
and who received medal at Phifa-
delphia in 1876. GUIDE is Norwegian
So is Otto Sinding. coast painter who
makes one actually hear the roar of the
breakers, as they chase each other
i'll tumultuouS masses and lash
the rocks with power that
may be felt" SOrensen, also credited
with medal at Philadelphia, was a
Dane. So is Rasmussen, author of the
magnificent ''DiScOvery of Greenland by
Erie" So was Skovgaard, who ''of all
Northern artists most nearly approached
Claude Lorraine" Edward and J. E.
Bergh, whose ''grand landscapes says
MI. Atkinson, might have been painted
at Dusseldorf" were Swedes. So was
Kjorbee. whose "Inundation'' brought
260 guineaS at the london sale of 1874.
SO was HOckert, who ''brings the North
to us in his portfolio" His Sermon"
took the Paris medal of 1853. 1T
charmed us like magic evocation of an
unknown country" declares Edmund
About.
These it will be noticed. are. in the
main, landscape painters. There have
not been wanting Representatives of the
other schools. HOckert himself was
even more noted as all historical painter.
GrOnland, who won two medals at Paris
and was esteemed one of the best fruit
painters III Europe. was Dane. So
was Meyer. whose Family of LaZza-
roni'' hangs in the National gallery at
Berlin. Salms0n, whose ''Fete of st.
John belongs to the COrcOran collec-
ton at Washington, is Swede. The
picture was selected for purchase by the
ministry of Beaus Arts at Paris. but
their funds proved insufficient. and
Adolph Tiedemand. the Millais of
M WI 1n NJ
of Norway-''A Painter of Man
ners," says L'Art, ''Of a talent severe
and elevated" THE primeval strength
of the Norwegian peasant would never
have been so well-known if this artist
had not represented it by academical
idcaliZation. His feeling. conception
and mastery NATURALIZATION tranStg-
ure most of his perSonages, even when
they are not correct. according to the
accepted idea of beauty" is the tribute
of a German critic.
Nor has sculpture lacked a successor
to Thorwaldsen. The ascension
which took the grand prize given by the
Princess Albert. of Prussia, was by
Jerichau, Dane. 1t is the same artist
whose monuments to OeTSted and An
dersen, at Copenhagen, honor himself
equally with those for whose fame he
labOred.
But these are scattered names. 1t is
in landscape that Scandinavia has
founded a distinct and individual
School-a school of conSummate artists.
who have given Us some of the n0bleSt
painting of the nineteenth century. 1t
is true that until very recently it has
been the fashion to diSparage landscape
painting. Painters of the historical and
genre schools are especially apt to treat
IS
ANY portrait painter can paint land
ScapeS. But landscape painters as a
rule know nothing OF drawing. If they
did, why do they adorn their pictures
with .puppets and dolls dressed up as
peaSants?'" AS if one should say
landscape painter is of no account, for
he isn't a portrait painter. Another rea-
son suggested for this sighting regard
is that Landscape painting is only the
representation of matter, while figure
painting is the representation of mind
"a doctrine of irreverent contempt for
nature, and God i'll nature, which Ham,
ertOn rebukes with proper indignation.
On the other hand, as Mr.. Hamerton
suggests, landscape has Il feature of pos
tive advantageous which affects the
spectator of art equally with the artist.
1t is that nature is never grossly reDel-
lent. Men and women have fatal
liberty which mountains have not. They
have the liberty of spelling themselves,
of making themselves ugly and mean
and ridiculous. They tattoo themselves
in South sea islands; what they do in
North sea islands it would he more pru-
dent not to particularize. But noun
tain does not know how to be ridiculous.
A mountain cannot dress in bad taste.
Neither is it capable of degrading itself
by vice. Noble human life in great
and earnest age is better artistic mate
rial than wild nature; but human life
in an age like ours is not"
AS to the case of landscape painting,
it has to meet two problems of extra